


Train Crashes and Truthful Conversations

by letsgooutintherain



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types
Genre: Concussions, Getting Together, M/M, Swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-25
Updated: 2017-08-25
Packaged: 2018-12-19 17:47:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11902944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letsgooutintherain/pseuds/letsgooutintherain
Summary: Concussions make for surprisingly honest conversations. Not that Ed would recommend making a habit out of it.





	Train Crashes and Truthful Conversations

Somewhere along the way this train ride had gone to hell. There had been screeching brakes, a horrible crashing sound and the wagon bucking under his feet. And after that? Ed wasn't sure. 

It was hot around him, he couldn't feel his automail fingers, his shoulders and neck hurt and something warm trickled down his leg. 

Al would kill him for this, for getting into danger.

Groaning he opened his eyes and looked up at the ceiling. There was a compartmend door in the ceiling, that probably shouldn't be there.

It smelled like smoke and... fire!

Ed shot upright, only to be yanked back by his automail arm. He looked down. His metal fingers were crashed under a metal pole. Right Winry would kill him too. He looked around. He lay on the outer wall of his compartment, glass from the window scattered everywhere. 

And it was hot, too hot. In the corridor above his head curled smoke. Damn!

Something niggled at his mind. There was something he should remember. Something, someone... Roy!

"Mustang!" Ed shouted. His voice was hoarse. The idiot had gone into the next compartment after one of their arguments got a little heated. Make that a lot.

Ed cursed again and tried to assess the situation. His fingers were crashed beyond recognition, but at least it didn't hurt. He could move his neck and shoulders. That did hurt, but it didn't seem to be serious. The headache was another matter. He was fairly sure he had a mild concussion. It was difficult to stay concentrated, though he was getting better. 

There was a gash at his leg, presumably from the glass laying around, but it seemed to be shallow. At least he wouldn't bleed to death. 

Okay next step. Getting out of here. He pictured an array, silently apologized to Winry and then awkwardly clapped his hands together. The metal of his automail prickled under the blue gleam and then his hand was free, but fingerless. 

Slowly Ed got to his feet and blinked against the world spinning around him. Roy, he had to find Roy! And he had to stop the fire. There were others in this train too. But he wouldn't be able to move through the corridor. There was smoke, and he was pretty sure it wasn't stable enough. Trains weren't built to be moved through while laying sideways.

Instead Ed clapped again and pressed his hands against the wall above the seat back. It changed into a narrow door and Ed grabbed for the handle. Smoke surged towards him and he coughed, before crouching to the ground. 

"Mustang?" No answer. Dammit! Ed crawled forward while the air got increasingly hot around him. There was a figure on the floor, laying in a puddle of blood, the blue of the uniform turned dark. 

"Mustang!" He didn't move and Ed cursed as he crawled over to him. Over his head the smoke increased further.

Okay, don't panic. What would Al do? He had explained it to Ed more than once. 

First, get the patient to safety. Okay. He could to that. He clapped again and pressed his hands to what had been the floor, but now was the side of the train. He didn't even bother with a door, just opened a hole big enough to get him and Roy through. 

Then he put his arms around Roy and pulled him backwards out of the train. 

Second, get help if possible and check for injuries. Treat said injuries in order of severity. 

They were in the middle of nowhere, there was no help. This was a night train, couldn't be more than a hand full of people on board. So no help for now. Injuries.

Roy didn't move, blood seeped from his head. That was severe. Very severe. "Fuck," Ed cursed, then clapped and his red coat parted into bandages. Ed reached for them, only to realise it was his right hand. He had no fingers.

Cursing yet again he picked them up with the left hand and started pressing it on the wound on the back of Roy's head. Then round and round and round. It was an awkward process without the fingers. He had to grip and change grip with one hand, while the other could only hold in place, but finally it held tight. It looked just as red as the blood in the light of the flames. 

What had Al said? Oh yeah, check for injuries. He needed to know if Roy was hurt anywhere else. Ed tried to shake his head to chase away the dizziness, but it only made his head pound harder.

Scowling he looked for more blood on Roy's uniform, but it was dark out here and the fact that Roy had been laying in a puddle of blood didn't help either. 

Then he remembered that he should check for broken bones too. He should have checked for a broken spine. The thought nearly made Ed ill. He blocked it out. Instead he started to feel for broken bones, wherever he could reach without moving Roy further. 

Al had told him again and again that he should learn this stuff, that further or later he would get in a situation where first aid was needed. Now he wished he had listened more carefully. He had thought Al would be with him anyway. Now he wasn't and Ed needed him.

Should he put Roy into recovery position? But that would mean moving him again. He still wasn't sure if his spine was okay, but at least he didn't seem to have broken anything else. 

Another thought occurred to him. There were other people in the train. He had done what he could for Roy, he needed to save the rest. 

He stood, only to have the world starting to spin again. Cursing he crouched down again, trying to breathe through the nausea that crept in. 

Why had the train crashed anyway? And why was it burning? The only thing that might be prone to ignite in a crash would be the railroad engine. 

Slowly the world stopped spinning and Ed's stomach settled. He took a deep breath, filled with too much smoke to be of any relief before carefully starting to push up again. 

A sound behind him made him stop mid-movement. Roy stirred, shoulders moving a little, a foot twitching. The next second Roy shot upwards and snapped. Ed's instinct kicked in and he let himself fall flat to the ground, as fire burst to life and bloomed in a wide circle around them both. Stunned Ed looked up, trying to get his bearing after the sudden movement.

The fire hadn't even come close to him, it was a glowing wall, protecting them both from ... what? Roy didn't look at him, his gaze was on his surroundings, rapidly going left and right, without ever losing control of the alchemy. 

Ed was impressed. If Roy's head had been hit as hard as his own then that much concentration was a big accomplishment. But what had he seen to make this necessary? Ed hadn't sensed anything, no noise apart from the crackling fire and in the smoke his sight was dire at best.

"What is it?" Ed asked, trying to take a deep breath, but breathing in smoke again. He coughed. Damn.

Roy's eyes shot to him and then back up and around. What was wrong? Ed slowly got to his feet and cursed his own concussion for slowing down his thoughts. There was something he was missing and he couldn't fight what he couldn't sense.

Another breath filled with smoke ... the thought hit him hard, as the pieces clicked together. A flashback. The smell of smoke, not being able to see far. 

The fact that Roy hadn't attacked him on instinct, but included him in his shield was astonishing.

"Mustang!" No reaction. Maybe too close to what people might refer to him in Ishval. 

"Roy!" That did the trick. Roy's gaze shot to him again. Only that Ed couldn't exactly say they were safe. He still had no idea what had caused the crash. He tried to stick to the facts instead. "You hit your head pretty hard, so I'm not sure what you remember. We were in a train crash, we are approximately ten miles from Central. When I found you you were unconscious, so I dragged you out here. I had not time to check for other survivors." 

Roy's gaze was on him while he talked, but Ed wasn't sure if anything got through. 

The next second Roy swayed and the flames flickered and disappeared. Ed grabbed for him before he could fall and helped him to sit back on the ground.

"You with me?" Ed asked.

Roy looked at him, white as a wall under the blood on his face, then he nodded slowly, even if his eyes flickered around rapidly.

The smoke was getting thicker. They shouldn't stay here. 

"Can you move?" he asked. 

Roy nodded again, just as slowly as before.

"Come on, I'll help you up." Ed got down next to Roy to slip his arm over his shoulder, only to realize it was the wrong side. There were no fingers to hold Roy's arm in place. With a silent "damn it" Ed changed sides, sliding the metal one around Roy's torso and putting the arm around his shoulder. "Up we go, Bastard."

They staggered to their feet and if possible Roy got even paler.

"If you get sick on my feet, I'll fucking kill you, Roy."

Something like a smile tugged at the corner of Roy's lip, "I'll do my best." His voice was hoarse and too weak for Ed's liking, but at least he had talked at all. Good. Next step. Getting out of the smoke and away from the train.

They hadn't managed more than two or three steps, when Ed caught a movement in the corner of his eyes. His body reacted, before his mind could catch up and he dragged Roy down with him, ready to clap and fight whoever was there with them.

There was a shout, but Ed couldn't understand anything with the blood pounding in his ears. 

Roy was leaning on him for stability, but his hand was ready to snap and his gaze alert.

Something moved on their other side and Ed spun around, making his head dizzy. There was someone too, staying just out of his visible range.

A civilian would have come up to them. Ed didn't hesitate, clapped and pressed his hands to the ground, reaching for the earth under their feet. Walls rose up in a wide circle around them, forming a prison and a shelter all at once. 

Shots rang through the night and nearly broke Ed's concentration, as he pushed the earth even higher. His head pounded and he started to feel sick.

"Stop, Ed. It's enough." Roy sounded as bad as Ed felt, but he followed the order anyway, trying to breathe to stop himself from vomiting. Shot's still rang out around them, but the earth was thick enough to shelter them. For now at least.

"Were they after you or after me?" Ed rasped, sitting back on his heels.

"Doesn't matter," Roy replied, "Are you injured?"

"I'm fine," Ed said, more to convince himself than Roy.

"You lost your fingers, there is blood all over you and you are white as a ghost." 

Ed glared at him, "It isn't as if you look any better, your uniform is soaked in blood and your head bled like hell when I found you."

"Your injuries, Fullmetal. Now!" 

"Concussion, a number of bruises, gash in my leg, lost fingers on my automail," Ed growled, "Now what about you?"

"Head wound, concussed as well and I strained something in my side."

"Glorious," Ed muttered, "None of us is in fighting shape, there are people out there intent on killing us and if they have an alchemist with them we are basically screwed."

"Hawkeye will find us," Roy replied.

"Yeah, just as soon as they realise the train didn't arrive. Which won't happen for another half an hour or so. Then they have to realise it's not just a delay and they have to get all the way out here. Thats an hour if we are lucky."

Roy didn't reply, so Ed closed his eyes and listened to the muffled sounds from the other side of the wall, but he couldn't make out anything concrete.

"You're not about to pass out on me, Fullmetal, are you?"

"No!" Ed glared again, before sitting down on the cold ground and finally starting to bandage his leg. 

Roy shuffled around for a bit and then he felt the man's wight leaning against his back. Sitting like this reminded him of the way he and Alphonse had studied as kids, back to back, each a book in the lap, on the floor of their father's study. It felt comforting.

"Just keep talking, so I know you're still conscious," Roy said.

"You are one to talk, with that blow to your head." It came out much softer than Ed had wanted it to. If Roy asked he would blame it on the concussion.

"Didn't say I wouldn't talk." 

"Good. What do you wanna talk about anyway?" 

"How is your research going?"

"Not good. Needs too much energy to be balanced, would cause a rebound if I tried it now." He shifted a bit and felt the tense line of Roy's spine against his back. He needed a new topic. "What was it? The fire ring thing I mean. Did you sense the guys or did the situation send you back?"

"The latter." Roy's voice, despite the roughness, pretty much ended that topic.

Ed promptly ignored it. "Thank you, by the way, you know, for trying to shield me."

He got no response to that and his gut clenched. "Roy? You still there?"

"Yes." Roy sounded tired but alert and Ed breathed a sigh of relief.

"You can not just go quiet on me, Bastard!" Ed growled.

"What did you expect me to reply to that?" Roy asked.

"Dunno, a witty or sarcastic comeback or whatever." 

"Can't think of something good with that headache," Roy replied, and promptly tensed again.

That was surprisingly honest. Either Roy trusted Ed enought to deal with the truth, or he had hit his head hard enough to destroy the brain to mouth filter. Ed hoped it was the former, but with his luck it most likely wasn't.

Before he could ask, Roy spoke again, "Since when are we on first name basis anyway, Fullmetal?"

Now it was Ed's turn to tense. "You seemed to have a flashback and calling you Mustang didn't help. I thought, calling you Roy might do the trick, since I didn't think anyone else would have in a combat situation back then." He nearly stumbled over his words. 

"And you simply kept it up," Roy said.

Ed sighed. It wasn't a question and it was true. He already thought of the bastard on first name basis and his mind to tongue filter wasn't at its best either, it just had continued to slip in.

"I can try to stop if you want me to." He winced as his mind caught up. Why had he said that? Try. As if it was difficult. Roy was a master of words. He would pick up on clues like this.

"Don't." Roy tensed even more after that.

"Don't stop or don't call me Roy?" Ed asked.

Roy huffed, but before he could answer the sound of shooting went up again, but without shouts, so no combat. Just shooting. Were they trying to shoot their way inside? Damn.

Ed clapped and guided his alchemy in the wall, testing where the damage was, before drawing more earth up from the ground to mend it. When he emerged he was shivering and his head pounded worse than before.

"Damn," he muttered.

"Ed?" Roy sounded worried.

"'m fine," Ed muttered, "And what was that about the using of first names, because you just totally called me Ed," he added, trying to lighten the mood.

He was met with silence again.

"Ro-, sorry, Mustang?"

"I'm still here."

Ed sighed. "You are stalling, you know."

"Yes, I know."

There was another silence and Ed tried to not get worried again, just because Roy didn't speak. Damn, this whole situation sucked. And Roy was probably right to evade these topics. The last thing Ed needed was to have his concussion interfere at a time when he was better off lying.

Or he could say the truth for once and blame it on his head afterwards. 

Right. Stupid idea, but the silence had to stop.

"Roy? You still with me?" 

"Yes. How are you?"

"Dizzy, cold, tired on top of my former symptoms, but not going to pass out. You?"

"I have been better," Roy admitted, "But for now I will be okay."

Another beat of silence.

"We need a new topic," Ed said.

"Okay. Tell me how is it going with the Rockbell girl?"

"Winry is fine, I guess. We haven't talked much. She is busy with her automail shop." 

"You split up?" Roy asked, surprise in his voice, "You never said anything."

"You cannot split something up that never really started. Never made it past the first stage." Ed shrugged, then winced when his shoulders protested.

It just hadn't been working. Ed had been unable to open up to her and she hadn't really understood how much the life on the road had changed him. 

"I'm sorry."

"What for?" Ed asked. 

He could feel Roy shrug.

"Anyway, what about your love life?" Ed added.

There was a short pause before Roy answered. "Not much. The military comes first. People usually don't understand that." 

Ed answered without thinking. "I would." He tensed at the beat of silence that followed. 

Then: "You shouldn't. You deserve better," Roy sounded just as tense. 

Ed could feel his heart beating much too fast. "That's my decision, don't you think?" He probably shouldn't do this. He was concussed, he wasn't thinking clear.

"And what do you decide?" Roy asked.

And suddenly Ed wished he could see Roy's face, wished to get just a single clue of what the bastard was thinking.

"That depends. You haven't said anything yet. You want me to lay down all my cards without showing me a single one of yours."

There was the silence again, even worse than before. 

"Roy?"

There was an intake of breath, and then: "I'm already falling for you," Roy said. "I've been for years."

Ed felt a silly grin spread on his face, "So have I."

He could feel Roy relax a bit. Carefully he tried to reach backwards with his flesh arm, trying not to stress his shoulder too much. After a second, a cold hand closed around his own.

This whole conversation was surreal.

They sat in silence for another minute or so. Then Roy cleared his throat: "In the unlikely event that we live through this..."

"It's not that unlikely," Ed interrupted. If they had an alchemist they'd already be dead.

Something heavily collided with the earth wall, making it tremble.

"Shit," Ed muttered, as it happened again, cracks spreading through the wall to his left. He clapped and slammed his palms to the ground, drawing earth to thicken the wall further. The array wobbled in his mind and for a second everything swayed.

"Shit," he muttered for a second time, letting go of the transmutation before it could rebound on him.

"Ed!" Roy was no longer at his back, but in front of him, one hand pressed to his own side, the other hovering milimeters from Ed's face. He looked deathly pale.

Ed sent him something that was supposed to be an encouraging smile, but probably looked like a grimace. That he felt ill again didn't help.

"You can't keep that up, Ed!" Roy said. His fingers connected with Ed's cheek and Ed couldn't help but lean into it. The loud thump of the collision was heard again, but more muffled. Ed really hoped it would hold for a while.

"You were saying?" Ed asked, taking carefully measured breaths.

"Saying?"

"Yes. Your whole, if we make it out of here alive speech!"

"Oh. I thought maybe we could, I don't know, go for a coffe or..." Roy's cheeks turned slightly pink, which was a better look than the ghostly white he had sported before.

"Smooth," Ed grinned, "Are you asking me on a date?"

Roy glared at him and Ed's grin widened, even if his head pounded and the world still wasn't steady, "Yes, I'll go out with you."

Roy seemed torn between keeping the glare and giving him a smile

Before he could speak up again, there were shout's from outside the wall, then shooting. Not the methodical one. The messy rhythm of a battle.

"Hawkeye." Ed whispered, "Roy, Hawkeye is here!"

"I can hear that," Roy muttered, "She is early."

They waited endless minutes until the shots ceased and there was silence again.

"Brigade General Mustang, Sir? Major Elric?"

Ed could feel himself smile as he made himself ready to clap one last time. They had made it. The rest would clear itself.

**Author's Note:**

> For Roy/Ed week day 5. Prompt: “In the unlikely event that we live through this…”  
> All mistakes are my own.


End file.
